Obama Picks Francis Collins as NIH Director

President Obama yesterday nominated Francis S. Collins, a physician and scientist who helped guide the Human Genome Project to completion, to be the next director of the National Institutes of Health.

Collins, 59, developed an important technique for identifying genes and went on to identify those involved in cystic fibrosis and neurofibromatosis, among other conditions. He was the first director of NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute.